planing thin lumber

Does anyone know a safe(or moderatly safe) way to plane lumber done to say 3/16ths of an inch? I usually just use carpet tape to attach the lumber to another board and then run it through the planer. I can get the wood down to an 1/8 inch this way. The only thing is I am looking to plane may 100 24 inch long boards down to 3/16s of an inch. taping them one by one to a board will take forever. Anyone know a better way?

A method I have seen in FWW (Micheal Fortune) for doing thin tapered laminations is to build a sled. There are stop at the front and back end of the sled. They distance between them is slightly less than the length of the board to be planed. You need to bow it a bit to fit it in between the two end stops. This springing keeps the board firmly in place.

I just stick a piece of melamine as a base with a lip on the front so it can’t get fed through the planer. It will give you a flat surface that isn’t affected by the rollers. wax up the top and feed your boards through. I’ve planed down to below 1/8” no problem.

I have a piece of 1/2 inch thick particle board with a white melamine layer, from a cheapo closet organizer we had.I have a cleat on it (on the side with the shelf pin holes) so I have a really slick surface which avoids a lot of the flex at the table on my dewalt planer (and serves as a sacrificial table to get really thin. But I never went below 1/8th, planning spline stock.

Also as you feed the strips, lift up the back as you get it started (it helps keep the cutterhead from chewing up the front. and lift the stock as it comes out at the very end. This holds the piece down when only one feed roller is in contact.

May not be the best, but it is how I was taught – and haven’t found a reason to try other things. I have used the doublestick tape, but found for thin stock, the tape thickness matters (creates low spots) and is hard to get the piece off without breaking it after being fed through the rollers a few times.